By George Lawther: Special to The Pilot

The North Moore High School softball team moved into an undisputed first-place position in the Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference, with an assist from Jordan-Matthews High School, who defeated Graham on Thursday night by a score of 10-7.

The Lady Devils were in a position to tie for first place with the Mustangs, but their second conference loss to the Jets took them out of the running. North Moore, as a result, won the conference championship for 2001 with a record of 9-1.

Graham finished second with only two conference losses, and both teams will receive first-round byes in the conference tournament which begins on Tuesday.

Jordan Matthews will play Durham School of the Arts at Jordan-Matthews on Tuesday, and Cummings will play at Chatham Central.

On Wednesday, Graham will play the Durham-Jordan Matthews winner in the first semifinal game at 4 p.m., and North Moore will play the winner of the Chatham Central-Cummings contest in the second semifinal game at 6 p.m. The final game will be played at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.

The semifinals and championship games will be played at Jordan-Matthews.

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